Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who and I never will unfortunately :(
Chapter Four:
New Earth
Part 1
Clara was bubbling with excitement as she walked in the middle of Jackie and Rose. They were all heading to the TARDIS. Clara had gotten up early and met up with the Doctor, who asked her to come with them again, just like she told him to last night as she had to think about it and she did. She practically stayed up all night thinking about if she should go or not. She wasn't going to, but then, she thought of her mother and knew that her mum wouldn't want her to be like this. She would want her to go.
With that thought in mind, it made her decision a lot easier and she told the Doctor that she would love to travel with them. Then he surprised her by giving an excited laugh, picking her up, and spinning her around. After that, Clara was beaming and laughing at his excitement. Then she quickly got packed and now here she was, about to go on an adventure of a lifetime.
It didn't take that long to get to the TARDIS where Mickey was waiting for them. As the good boyfriend that he was, he wanted to see Rose off.
And like any mother, Jackie checked to see if they had everything that they needed.
"Have you got everything?" she questioned, and Rose nodded.
"I've got everything, don't worry."
Clara fixed her shoulder bag as Jackie turned to her, a concerned look on her face.
"Are you sure you want to go with them, Clara?" she asked her. "Because you're welcome to stay with me."
"Yeah, I'm sure." Clara smiled at her concern.
Jackie stared at her for a moment, then nodded. "Alright then. You be careful though." She knew how dangerous it was to be traveling with the Doctor and she didn't want Clara to get hurt. Same went for Rose.
"I will." Clara surprised the older woman by hugging her. "Thank you for your help." She whispered into her ear. If it wasn't for Jackie, she would still be walking on the street with no place to go. Clara pulled back from the hug as Jackie smiled down at her, patting the top of her head.
"Of course, anytime."
Suddenly Rose cleared her throat, rather loudly, getting her mother's attention back on her. "You got to call Mo about that—" she started to remind her before Jackie cut her off, waving a hand.
"Oh, nevermind Mo…"
"Okay, I'm going to go now. I love you!" Rose kissed Jackie on the cheek.
"I love you."
After she told her mother those three words again, Rose turned to Mickey and they kissed for a moment before pulling back.
"Love you." Mickey told her, and Clara couldn't help but smile at the love in his tone, but it fell when Rose didn't tell him the same thing as she grinned.
"Bye." With that, she turned away from him, missing the hurt look in his eyes.
Clara felt bad for Mickey as she tapped him on the shoulder. "It was nice meeting you, Mickey," she said, completely meaning her words.
He gave her a smile, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "You too, Clara."
She smiled back at him sadly before turning back to Jackie, giving her one last hug and a kiss on the cheek. Though it was strange how close she and Rose's mother had gotten even if they had only known each other for a day, Clara didn't think much about it. It was nice being close to someone after losing her mother.
Now, the goodbyes were done, and Clara followed Rose, who was practically skipping over to the TARDIS. She made it inside of the TARDIS a couple minutes after the blonde.
The Doctor was standing at the console, grinning at the two girls.
Rose grinned back as she sat her bag down and moved over to the Doctor, helping him with the controls as the TARDIS took off.
Clara just stood around, feeling very much like a third wheel, and she didn't like it all that much.
"So, where are we going?" Rose asked excitedly.
The Doctor thought about it. "Clara!" he suddenly exclaimed, and Clara looked at him startled. Something he didn't take notice to as he grinned widely at her. "Why don't you choose where we go?"
"Me?" Clara pointed to herself and he nodded. She felt stumped. She didn't really give it much thought as to where she wanted to go. There was a bunch of places…but those were all in her mother's, 101 Places to See, book, which unfortunately she left at home.
After thinking about it for a while, Clara gave a bright smile and if she was on a TV show, the camera would be zooming in as she said, "Somewhere awesome!"
This made the Doctor's grin widened even more as he started up the TARDIS. "Somewhere awesome it is!"
Clara grinned back at him as Rose stared at them with pursed lips.
Finally, the TARDIS came to a stop and Clara was the first one out the door, a skip in her step as the excitement of seeing what was out there came over her. Pulling the TARDIS doors, she stepped out and a look of awe crossed her face at the gorgeous landscape before her. It was rather windy as well, but it didn't bother Clara at all as she was in awe at what she was seeing.
"Wow…" she breathed.
"It's the year five billion and twenty-three…" The Doctor said with a grin as he stood beside Clara with Rose on the other side of him. "We're in the galaxy M87, and this…this is New Earth." He gestured forward, and Clara followed his gesture, eyes catching sight of a futuristic city across from a clear blue crystal lake and there was flying vehicles, coming from and to the city.
This…was awesome!
Clara looked up at the Doctor to find him smirking at her.
"Awesome enough for you?" he questioned.
In response, Clara nodded her head enthusiastically and his smirk widened.
"That's just…" Rose said in awe. "…that's…" She couldn't find the rest of the words as she laughed in wonder and it turned the Doctor's attention back to her.
He nodded in agreement. "Not bad. Not bad at all!"
"That's amazing. I'll never get used to this. Never. Different ground beneath my feet!" Rose jumped up and down in excitement. "Different sky!" Then she stopped and sniffed the air. "What's that smell?"
Clara smelt the air too, the familiar smell of apples getting into her airways. "It smells like…apples?" She peered up at the Doctor, who nodded as he bent down, grabbed some grass out of the ground, and showed it to the two young women.
"Apple grass."
"Apple grass…!" Rose enthusiastically exclaimed.
"Yeah, yeah!"
"It's beautiful!"
Clara honestly didn't know how apple grass was beautiful. It was just grass after all, even if it did have an amazing smell. She didn't voice that out loud, of course, not wanting to be rude.
Clara watched as Rose gazed up at the Doctor with clearly love in her eyes and a wide smile.
"Oh, I love this." She breathed. "Can I just say…" She linked her arm with the Doctor's nearest one, still gazing up at him. "Traveling with you…I love it…"
"Me too."
Rose laughed and the Doctor grinned, gazing down at her with the same amount of love in his eyes.
And again, Clara felt like the third wheel and shifted awkwardly on her feet.
Why did the Doctor ask her to travel with them anyway? Because Clara couldn't help but feel that she was invading in on something that she shouldn't be.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when she felt someone take a hold of her hand and she looked up at the Doctor, who had been the one to do this.
Now, the grin he had directed to Rose was now focused on Clara. "Ready for an adventure, Clara Oswald?"
The awkwardness drifted away as if it was never there in the first place as she grinned back at him. "Most definitely!"
"Come on, then!" The Doctor exclaimed joyfully, grabbing Rose's hand and they all dashed off with Clara grinning still, feeling happier than she had in a long time.
They ran for a while until they finally came to a stop. As the Doctor lay his jacket on the green grass with Rose's help as it was windy, Clara went to get a closer look at the lake, but she still stayed close to them.
She gazed at the city and lake in amazement. She couldn't believe that she was in a place like this. In the future none the less! Clara hadn't been there long, but she knew that she was going to love traveling with the Doctor. She smiled, brushing her hair out of her face and tried to push as much as she could behind her ears. Too bad she didn't bring a hair scrunchy with her…
Clara looked behind her at the Doctor and Rose with the Doctor talking animatedly with the blonde. She was close to them enough where she could hear what he was talking about.
"So, the year five billion – the sun expands, the Earth gets roasted," he said.
At this, Rose grinned as she gazed down at him. "That was our first date."
He leaned back to look at her, grinning right back. "We had chips!" He giggled along with Rose. "So anyway, planet gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on, spread out across the stars. Soon as the Earth burns up – oh, yeah, they get all nostalgic – big revival movement…but find this place!" He sat up to get a better view, giving a smile to Clara when he saw her looking at them. "Same size as the Earth…same air…same orbit…lovely! Call goes out, the humans move in!"
"What's the city called?" Clara asked, instead of Rose as she slowly made her way back over to them.
"New, New York!"
Clara raised a brow and Rose eyed the Doctor skeptically.
"Oh, come on." Rose said in disbelief.
"It is!" The Doctor protested. "It's the City of New, New York!" He paused, thinking for a moment. "Though strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original. So that makes it New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New, New York."
Rose looked down at him, amusement in her eyes. Something he noticed.
"What?"
"You're so different."
"New, New Doctor." He grinned, and Rose giggled, earning a chuckle from him.
Clara watched them, feeling the awkwardness coming to her again. Was it always going to be like this? She hoped not.
Because all of them were distracted, they didn't notice a metal spider watching them.
Rose started to get up from the ground, still smiling. "Can we go and visit New York, so good they named it twice?"
The Doctor stood up as well, brushing his suit off. "Well – I thought we might go there first." He nodded towards a large building in the distance, on the coast.
"Why? What is it?"
After struggling to get his coat on, the Doctor responded, "Some sort of hospital. Green moon symbol on the side – that's the universal sign for hospitals."
Rose hummed in response.
Clara tapped the Doctor on the side, standing on her tiptoes to do so, and he looked down at her. "What do you need to go there for?" she asked curiously.
"I got a message on the psychic paper." He explained.
Clara's eyebrows furrowed at that. "Psychic what?"
"Paper." The Doctor pulled out a leather wallet and showed to her. But all Clara saw was a blank piece of paper.
"Um…it's blank…"
At this, he looked at her surprise while Rose frowned at her.
"No, it's not, it says, Ward 26 – Please come." The blonde said, pointing to the paper.
Clara shrugged. "Well, I don't see it." She glanced at the Doctor and he was studying her rather intently. "What?"
Staring at her a moment longer, he shook his head. "Nothing…" he muttered.
Clara narrowed her eyes at him but didn't comment.
It was silent for a few minutes until Rose spoke up. "Who sent it?"
"What?" The Doctor seemed to snap out of his thoughts as he looked at her.
"The message on the psychic paper. Who sent it?" Rose sounded and looked a little annoyed.
The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I just know that someone wants to see me."
Rose nodded. "Hmm! And here I thought we were just going sight-seeing." She smiled, the annoyance she once had was gone. "Come on then! Let's go and buy some grapes." Her smile widened as she licked her arm with the Doctor and they walked away with Clara following but she stopped for a moment, thinking that she saw something from the corner of her eye, but nothing was there.
Clara frowned before she heard the Doctor calling her and she hurried after them, missing the fact that the thing she had seen was following behind them.
-0-
When they entered the hospital, and went into the reception area, Clara was surprised by how large and spacious it was.
Though she shouldn't be that surprised as this was a hospital in the future, so it was bound to be larger than the ones in her time and large than the one where her mum got sick.
Remembering that day made her remember how much she hated hospitals and this one was no exception.
Luckily, she wasn't the only one who shared that thought.
"Bit rich coming from you." Rose commented while they walked through the hospital.
"I can't help it!" The Doctor protested, making a face and snuffing his hands in his pockets. "I don't like hospitals – they give me the creeps!"
Clara nodded. "I don't blame you…" she agreed, causing him to look over at her. "I hate hospitals ever since my mum died."
As soon as she said that, his eyes flashed with sympathy but she mistaked it for pity and she flinched, which was something that the Doctor noticed. He was about to comment on it when the intercom stopped him from doing so.
"The Pleasure Gardens will now take visitors carrying green or blue identifications cards for the next fifteen minutes." It said, "Visitors are reminded that cuttings from the gardens are not permitted."
Rose looked around. "Very smart," she commented. "Not exactly NHS."
"No shop. I like the little shop!"
Clara's lips quirked up in a small, amused smile. "Why's that then?"
"Well." He dragged out. "Who wouldn't like a little shop?"
"Someone who doesn't obviously." Clara smirked.
"You know, I thought this far in the future, they'd have cursed everything." Rose said.
The Doctor shrugged. "The human race moves on, but so do the viruses."
Just then, a human like cat crossed their path, dressed as a nurse and it nodded at Clara and Rose politely.
Both girls stared after her, but Clara didn't stare as long as Rose did even though the sight was very strange.
Rose pointed at the cat nurse, eyes wide. "They're cats…"
"Now, don't stare…" The Doctor whispered to her. "Think of what you look like to them, all…" He looked her up and down. "Pink and yellow. That's where I'd put the shop!" He pointed over Rose and Clara's shoulders. "Right there!"
Clara looked over in the direction he pointed in for a few seconds, then when she looked back around, the Doctor and Rose were already in the lift. Her eyes widened.
"Wait!" she called, rushing over to the lift, but it was too late as the doors were already shut. She stopped herself from slamming into them by catching herself with her hands.
"Oh, too late – we're going up!" The Doctor called through the doors.
Clara wanted to protest. She didn't want to be here by herself in a strange place, but she didn't, not wanting them to think she was afraid. Good thing there was another lift.
"It's okay!" Clara reassured him. "There's another lift anyway. What floor do I need to go to?!"
"Ward 26. And watch out for the disinfectant!"
Her nose wrinkled. "Er, okay." With that, Clara headed over to the other lift and pressed the button, then waited for the lift to ding and for the doors to open. It didn't take long, and she stepped inside.
Now what?
Clara thought about it for a moment and came up with that since this was the future, they invented voice activated lifts by now. She cleared her throat.
"Ward 26." Clara said out loud, making sure her voice was clear and precise. "Thank you."
The doors closed, and she felt the lift slowly going down.
"Commence stage one – disinfectant." The speaker spoke.
Clara cried out in surprise when she was suddenly sprayed with disinfectant, before getting puffed at with white powder and she coughed and sputtered as it hit her in the face. Then she made a face when she felt her hair, feeling the powder. It felt disgusting.
The blower dryer kicked on, drying her hair. The shock was finally gone, and Clara tried to keep her hair out of her eyes as she got blow dried.
Finally, it was over, and the lift doors slid open. She stepped out of the lift, running a hand through her now soft and neat hair.
That was certainly interesting.
Clara looked around, frowning. Where was she?
It looked like she was in some sort of cellar. It was a mess and had pieces of machinery all over the floor. This place was no ward.
"The Human child is clean." A voice suddenly said, and her head snapped in the direction of the sound. Down the corridor was a man who had patterns all over his face.
A bad feeling came over Clara, but she shook it off, deciding it was nothing even though her gut said otherwise.
"Can you help me?" she finally asked, taking a step forward. "I'm looking for Ward 26."
Instead of answering her, he said, "This way, Clara." He scurried off and Clara's body stiffened. How did…how did he know her name? The bad feeling, she had become even more profound.
Before she followed, she noticed a metal rod on the ground and she grabbed it just in case she needed to use it.
A couple minutes later, Clara walked into a room where an old tape was playing, projecting the video on the nearby wall. She titled her head to the side as she watched it curiously, wondering why this was playing of all things. It was showing a glamourous party filled with beautifully dressed people, laughing, talking, and drinking champagne, having a good time. One woman was laughing pleasantly with the men around her. She looked happy. Watching her, Clara felt like she was right there with her, dancing and having a good time.
"I mean, you never know what your life's going to be like!" The woman said, laughing. "Ever! I'm bored with this drink." She handed her drink away to someone, smiling at him flirtatiously before returning to everyone else. "Anyway –"She stopped when she took notice to someone and she beamed. "Oh, hello darling!" He leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Whatever it was, it made her giggle. "Now, don't! Stop!" She pushed the man playfully on the chest.
"Peekaboo!"
Clara jumped and whirled around at the sudden sound. Her eyes widened at the sight of a patch of skin stretched out on what looked like a vertical trampoline. The only things that were remotely human was the eyes and the lips.
"What the…?"
The lips quirked up in a smile, but it wasn't a pleasant one. "Long time no see, Clara dear!"
Instantly, the metal rod shot up and Clara was on edge. This was the second time today that someone she didn't know knew her name. It was more than a little strange.
When she brought the rod up, the skin snorted. "Now, what do you expect to do with that, Clara dear?
"I don't know! I'll do something!" she sputtered. "But whoever you are, stay away from me! You and him!" She nodded towards the man she saw earlier, who was standing beside the skin.
The eyes rolled. "Oh…that's just Chip. He's my pet."
"I worship the mistress!" Chip said, nodding his head enthusiastically.
"Moisturize me, moisturize me…" The skin muttered to him.
Clara watched with disgust as Chip quickly picked up a canister nearby and squirted the skin with it.
"He's not even a proper lifeform." The skin went on when he finished, "He's a force-grown clone. I modeled him after my favorite pattern. But he's so faithful." The eyes stared at him gratefully. "Chip sees to my physical needs."
As soon as she said that, Clara made a face, but she didn't ask. She didn't even want to know what that meant.
She changed the subject. "Who are you?"
The lips pouted. "Oh, don't be like that, dear! Acting like you don't know me. I am the one you sent to her death on Platform One!" The eyes narrowed hatefully. "I've always thought about the day where I would see you and again and get my revenge! On you and that Doctor of yours!"
"I have no idea where you're talking about!" Clara exclaimed frustrated. "Who. Are. You?!"
"Oh alright." The eyes rolled. "If you want to pretend that you don't remember me, fine. My name is Cassandra!"
This whole thing was frustrating. Clara had no idea what was going on and she wasn't going to wait to find out.
She backed up, intent to run out of there and go back to the Doctor. Before she could start doing just that, Clara stopped by a light coming from a machine and she couldn't move! She struggled to get free, eyes wide with fright.
"Activate the psychograph!" The skin, or now known as Cassandra, ordered Chip and he bounded over to the controls.
"Let go of me!" Clara yelled frightened, struggling as hard as she could, but she couldn't free. It had a tight hold on her.
Chip pulled down lever and bars of light came down from the ceiling, surrounding Clara like a cage.
Clara was still struggling. "What are you doing?! Let go of me!"
"This lady's moving on. It's goodbye trampoline, and hello Brownie!"
This was the last thing Clara heard before her eyes rolled back and she blacked out as she fell to the ground in a heap.
TBC...
In...
New Earth, Part 2